Coaches need to be respected, rewarded: Gopichand

Mumbai: Backing the view of shuttle ace Prakash Padukone, India's national badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand said sports coaches need to be respected and rewarded for new players to emerge.

"I completely agree with Prakash sir. It's very important that coaches need to be looked at, it's high time we looked at it because we should have looked at it in the past 10 years and we haven’t. And it’s not only badminton but across all sports; this is for me the most important thing which is there," Gopichand said here.

"Coaches need to be respected, coaches need to be rewarded, coaches need to be awarded and people should be motivated to take up coaching," said Gopichand on the sidelines of the function to announce a grass-roots talent hunt plan by his academy with IDBI Federal Life Insurance.

A few days ago Prakash said that it was high time the badminton-governing body in the country, BAI, Sports Authority of India and the sports ministry looked at coaching the coaches by inviting top foreign coaches to do the job. "We treat Indian coaches differently, foreign coaches differently. I’ll have to say this openly, but there’s not a single rupee of remuneration which any of the coaches in the past have got from either the federation or the SAI. It’s time they start looking at coaches differently, start looking at coaching differently. And unless we do that we can’t sustain the ecosystem of sports," he explained.

"I think this is an aspect which, for the last few years, has been a challenge of the entire ecosystem which brings the best players back into the sport. And creating good coaches doesn’t end with giving them good training. It is the entire ecosystem which is important. A coach needs to be respected.

"I’m sure everyone has these challenges in the teaching profession as well. The best mind doesn’t get into teaching. Likewise, we also face the same challenges with coaching.”

Gopichand Academy’s talent hunt initiative
Under-10 children could showcase their badminton skills by uploading a two-minute video on the Facebook and Twitter pages Winners will be mentored by Pullela Gopichand Children up to 10 years will be eligible to participate in the three-week contest that closes on Dec 28

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